The Undergraduate and the Harvard Library, 1877-1937

The undergraduate and the Harvard Library, 1877-1937

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Citation Lovett, Robert W. 1947. The undergraduate and the Harvard Library, 1877-1937. Harvard Library Bulletin I (2), Spring 1947: 221-237.

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ETvVEEN 1877 and 1937 the 'Harvard Library grew from a collection of 414, 2_1 5 volumes ~d pa1nphlets, the b~lk of them kept in a building already forty years old and open only during daylight hours, to a collection of 3,863, 1 50, scattered for convenience in many placest but the greater part housed in a re1atively modem building, kept open until ten at night~1 Of course the undergraduate enrollment increased dUI!ng this time too; from 813 to 3,735, to be exact. But whereas there v;rere 509 books

for each undergraduate in I 877, there were 1 1034 in 193 7. However 1 had the complexities inherent in a great collection of books offset the more liberal provision of material?' Both the Faculty and the students were aware of this problem and attempted in various ,vaysto meet it. These included, in the early part of the period under consideration, subscription libraries managed by the students, and reserved books; later, class-room and laboratory libraries; and finally, Widener's great reading room~ a. separatc library for freshmen, and the Ho use libraries4 No one of these ,vas ever the complete answ~, but during two thirds of the period the rnajn effort was directed towards the attainment of a single large reading roomt ,vhile it has been of recent years that the value of smru.ler,more stratcgica11yplaced libraries has been realized. Changing methods of instruction have been reflected in the library system; and through all the expedients,.the gropings, the heated cussions, real contributions to librarianship and to cducation have emerged. . The modcr11conception of the relation of the college library to the undergraduate is generally credited to Justin l1/insor, who· becan1e Librarjan in 1877, after nine fruitful years a.shead of the Boston Public Library. But just as some· of Presidcn t Eliot"s ref onns were fore-

shadowed during the administration of his predecessor1 Thomas Hill, so some of Winsor's were attempted nndcr Library Sib1ey,though not, . probably~ with his wholehearted consent4 The obstacles to the free

i These .figures include all the Uni vcrsity Librariest for may use the Departmental Libraries, i£ nec~ary, and c11rdsfor these libraries appear in the • Union Ca.talogue at ,:Videner.

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Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume I, Number 2 (Spring 1947) 122 Harvard Library Bulletin use of books by students from the building of the second 1--Iarvard Hall to the reciren1entof S1bleyhave been portrayed by the present Librarian in a preceding article. 2 One compensating factor, as he points out, was the 'society libraries of the students\ in 187 3, the last year they appear in the co1lege catalogue, they numbered 1 6,.000 vol- umes4 But these ,vere not avail-ableto a11students, no.r could they kec p up with current pub] ications. Acc~rdingly,. ·in r 872., the students or- ganized their own Rea.ding Room fusociation, designed to supply current newspapers and periodicals for the sum of tw'o dollru"'Sa year. The Harvard Advocate took up the cause; President Eliot agreed to allow the use of the lower floor of 1'.1assachusetts I-Ia114Four hundred subscriptions were raised, enough to furnish the room, to pay a. .sopho- more curator $~.fo a week, and to buy subscriptions tq a respectable numb er of newsp apersj including f orcign. But difficulties soon arose over persons who tried to use the room without subscribing. And after a ]apse in 1 879 and a reorganization in r 883) the Association dis• solved for good in 1884. 3 Presumably the newspapers ,vent to the CollegeLibrary. Another library open ~nly to subscribers ,vas that of

the Harvard Union 1 established in 19or. That too finally was taken over by the U niversiry-; quite Iightl y, libraries-by-subs-cription were not to be the ans,ver to the problem of tbe student and the library. The introduction of the reserved book system, and of the n1et~ ods of teaching ,v-hichit implies,.was first undertaken by·Professors Henry Torrey nnd Henry Adatns of the History Department.. Vliiting 'in the Boston Evening Transcript of 5 Novcn1ber 1913.,'K.V.s4~ recalls: 'There came Torrey, watchful for his history a1covethat it be supplied with everything new and valuable.... It ,vashe who first took down the ''No admittance,, bars and opened his alcove for the free access of

his students1 p1acingin it tables and chairs.,and making it attractive~that hls classes might love to live with the books and not merely· refer to them/ The conrribution of Hemy Adams to the ne,v methods of teaching is ,vell known; he describes it hirnself in the Education: 'Since

• no textbooks existed, the professor refused to profess, knovling no more than his students, and they read ,vhat they pleased and com-

• Keye."'D~ Metcalft 'The Undergradu~te and the Harvard Lihrary 1 r76;-1877/ Harvard Library Bulletin. 1 (1947)~ 29-51. 1 Notes on the new reading room a ppeaf in the Advocate for 21 Decetn be.r 1871,, 9 and 20 F ebrn ary and 2 .2 hf arch J 8 72~ The annu~l H arva-rd Index con rains lists of offi.ccr5 of the Assa ciation~

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume I, Number 2 (Spring 1947) \

The Undergradffllte and the Harvard Library,'"1877-1.937 22 3 pared their ,results., 4 D issacisfiedwith conditions in the Library, Adams in 1875 addressed the f ollo,ving petition to the Corporation:

Th~ Under-signed*Assistant Prof cssor of History, respectfully presents the following peti ti.on to the H onorab1e the Corporation of Harvard College. The Undersigned has the duty of instructing a number of students in the department of Hjstory. He requires of them that each one shall use to the utmost possible extent the resources of the College Library. Without doing so, they cannot acquire the t;rniningwhich it is bis principal object to gi ~e them. As the Library js at present arranged it is impossible for th em to use it to proper advantage. The students req uirc room, e.specinlly ta ble-roo1n, which is not given them. The Undersigned respectfully represents that this j nconvenience is ,vholly unnecessary. One half the floor of the library is now occupied by show-casesi standst or other .fixrures)which do not necessarily belong there and which add nothing to the prop er usefulness of the institution. The Undersigned respectfully requests that these cases, &ct may be removed and that a long table may, so soon as the Honorable ·Corporation think proper, be substituted. If thls be done, the Undersigned believes that the students wUl have sufficjcnt accommodation for all their immediate wants. Respectfully presented Cambridge4 14 Deer. 187s /sf Henry Adams~ I

The petition brought action, for Pr~ident Eliot., in his report for I 876-,7, states that the floor has been cleared and (is to be given up entirely to the accommodation of persons ,vho are consulting books.' Justin Winsor, himself a scho]ar., approved completely of the ne,v methods of teaching and the system of reserved books. An excellent statement of rusattitude is to be f oond in his preliminar)r report to President Eliot., for .1876-77: 'Books may be accumulated and guarded, and the result is sometimes called a library: but if books are made to help and spur men on in their o,vn daily work, the library becomes a vital influence; the prison is turned into a ,vorkshop4 ~'insor soon did away,. as he had already done at the Boston Public Library, with the calling in of books for annual examination and the closing of the Library for cleaning. He inaugurated a SJrstem of (Notes and Queries,' where~y questions could be posted, for anyone ,vith the requisite in- formation to answer. By 1 880 students were being admitted to the

' The Education of H e12ry A d~111s( Boston and New Y or~ 191 8), p- 3,0l 1 11;This petitlont with similar docum.ents quoted in thfa account, is preserved in the Harvard University Archives.

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume I, Number 2 (Spring 1947) ... .. Harvard Library Bulletin : I stacks; tickets ,vcre given·for limited periods of time... Of his extension of the alcove and reserved book collections, he writes in his first com-

plete report 1 for r 8 77-78: : I; The students can hand]e-this abso]ute contact with books js, in my .judg- ment, humanlzing - the newer books, as they stand on ~ertain shelves~ fo.r e. while after their accession; and alcoves~ with tables, ar~ also given to an ever- changing collection of books, designated by the several professors as -collaterel reading for th cir classes. These latter boo~ no,v conspicuously labelled wi ~lt a different color for each professor, are retained from circulation, except at hours when the Library is not open ... With this rearrangement of the hall, I had reserved in ;mynlind the series of low er ale ovcs reinovjng th_e present central cases and substituting tables - to ~ontain a succession of collections of the most useful books in all departments of kno,v ledge, each alcove b cing given to a particular branch, of which the stud en~ could have unfettered en- j oym en t. I think there can be no difficulty a.bout su.fficicnt over.sight; and I · have confidence that it will stimulate inquiry, and give no-w resources to the instructors. I ,vould not have these collections permancn t, but shifting from

year to year. Ten and even nvcnry thousand volumes can thusr I j udge 1 be most profitably dis poscd~ The results of ,vinsor's activity were described by Henry Ware in the Harvard Register for October 1880:

The books have been re-arranged in the nc \V wing since his accession; the old Gore I-Ia.11hns been devoted to the purposes of a reading-room; the hours of ....use have been extended, so that the doors are open even in vacation nearly as many hours as they formcrl}r were jn term time. Sunday even sees them open; and, as soon as prop er means of Iig hting are d evjsed, the evenings as well as the days can be qevoted to study ,vithin the ,valls of the library .. A · ne,v life and spirit seem to penrad e the place; and it is safe to say that: a public library does not exist to ,vhlch readers are more cordially wclconu~d, or more intelligently and courteously aided in their re.searches, than the library of Harvard College under its present enlightened and modern n1anagmnent.

I The ne,v Librarian had the full support of the President, ,vho'~in his report for I 877-78t rejoiced that 'the LibraIJ 7 gives abundant evidence of the inventiveness, experience, and energy of the Librarian.' Problems raised by ovcrcro,vding, which ,verc to plague the Library authorities for the next thirty-£ve years, soon faced Winsor.. Space gained by the addition of 1877, in which modern stack construction was used for.the first time in America, \Vas soon filled up .. I--Iere,in a letter from Winsor to Eliot, dated 2 9 October 1 8 9 2, is a typical statc- me11tof the ca sc: 'I wish to notify you that of this day, at the begin~ ning of cold weather, we are all blocked in our Reading Roornt and

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+ every chair, we can find space for, on the ·floo.rand in the gallery is .· filled, and rn any of the sitters are without table f aciliries. Our Cloak room is packed,. and we have been obliged to let students· car117 their overcoats into the Icading room. Our delivery room is crowded to the detriment of its administration. Our stack is gorged., and confusion is incrcasing4 The thought of ,vhat we shall experience a few weeks hence is alarming.' That part of the quotation referring to crowded conditions in the reading room might easily have been written today. Without electricity, the Library had to close before four o~clocl{on some winter afternoons~ Though an effon ,vas made to raise funds for lighting in r 8 86, and the students petitioned that lights be installed _ in 1 8 8 9t the Corporation, ,vith an eye on the College treasury, was reluctant to go ahcad4 The plaster was crumbling (Sibley had noticed this back in the seventies); and on Thanksgiving Day, 1889, -a £fty- ponnd corner ornament feli onto a table in the reading room, 'where on ordinary days a student ·might' be sitting.' 6 · Planning and hoping for an addition, or even a new building, became the Librarian's chief concemt ·Early plans for enlargement hinged on a :separate reading room, perhaps with smaller rooms for class libraries opening off it. \Vinsor favored this arrnngement; writing in the Harvard Register for Janu- ary 1880,.he states: 1We can hardly hope our college libraries will do all that they should -in connection wjth the classes, until libraries -are built with class-rooms contiguous to the alcoves. A disused apartment jn the Harvard Library has been divided into three stalls~ with shelves about the tables to hold a ]arge number of books; and here the professor brings his class, and illustrates the modes of research.' President Eliot, in his repon ·for 1 883-84, urged a separate rea.ding room. If the new building had ample coat-rooms and dressing-rooms, he felt that 'stt1dents who had no rooms in Cambridge ~ight .findthemselves comf onably provided for at the reading-room during the ,vhole working day.' Still·no donor can1efonvard, and in 1 890 the students started , a ·subscription. They raised $3,530; a subsequent appeal to the alumni brought in an additional $ 18,,000. Even in those days this was much too little; so everyone took heart when it was rumored that a. donor , had been found. Plans were actually dra\v·n up for an octagonal build- ipg, to be, located on the hill towards Quincy Street.· If ,vas to be connected to Gore Hall by a lean-to, which would house the delivery

, I 111Letter of Winsor to E1ioti 2. December 1889.·

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume I, Number 2 (Spring 1947) Harvard Library . Bulletin deskt The prospective donor -r died, how~ver, bef orc the gift was made. Although the failure to obtain a new library at this time was a heavy blow, it now seems obvious ths.t the plfill.S·"rere such that deferment _of the nc,v building was really a blessing.

- • Finally, in I B9 5---96,the Corporation1 using the money raised by subscription in 189ot plus some of its own, renovated Gore I-Iall. Patt of the old lofty reading room was turned into stacks and a 11cw .reading roon1 constructed across the top of the farmer. This provided seats for 2 2 5 students, while the 'History Room, over the Delivery Desk., accommodated 50 more. And at long last the Library was wired for electricity.. It was realized that the reading room arrangements were only temporary; in fact, ventilating problems soon made the use of the large xeading room in summer almost impossible. A rotary fan proving unsnccessfult a large awning like a tent-fiy was spread over the entire roof.. All of this was too much for the editors of the La1npoon.,,vho, \ in a fake jssue of the Crimson,dated 30 May 1901, ran a scratched-up picture of a monumental room, ,vhich purported to be a ne,v reading room for Gore Hall offered by· an unknown donor. (The present accommodation having become manifestlyinsufficient,' the news item statest "it was deemed adV'isableto remove the stacks in Room Et to the left of the present reading room, as one enters. The books havc·becn pla.cedin carefully sealed boxes in the basen1 ent~until suita.ble accom- modacions can be· obtained for them. The desks are to be of hard Georgia pine., and are fitted with a ne,v system of drop lightst as seen in the cut.' Balked in his effarts to obtain a new buildh1g,,vinsor turned to the multiplication and strengthening of the cl-assand laboratory libraries, outside Gore Hall, and to the provision of special collections ,vithin. · Libraries in United States I-Iistory and in Political Economy were the first t\Vo class-roon1 ]ibraries of importance. They had been set up in-University Hs.ll in 1886; shortly they were tran.sferred to Harvard Hall where, with collections in Social Que.scions-and European History, they formed a reading room for the elementary courses in the social sciences. The Social Questions books were transferred to Emerson Hall in r 90 5, but the other collections remained in Harvard Hall, which grew more and more cro,vded, until the construction of ,v-idener. In 1 897, the Child Memorial Library, a collectio11 of books in. English Iiterarure, ,vas opened as a tribute to Professor Francis ' Later identified 9S Frederick L~ Amesi ,5th Fellow of Harvard College 188~3.

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume I, Number 2 (Spring 1947) j The UndergraduateTandthe Harvard Library., 1877-1J3? 127 ... James Child. Special collections in French, German, Roman~e, and Sanskrit were ~tablished in \Varren House in 1899. Some of these were closed collections, open to graduate students with keys, and so became the ancestors of the rooms on the top .floor of Widener. Efforts to make more books available to undergraduates within Gore Hall itself included selections of reference books, periodica1s, and modern literature, maintained in the reading and delivery rooms. Reporting on this material £or the year 1886-87,. Wins~r wrote: 'In addition to the books reserved by instructors, now amounting to 6180 volumes, there are in the reading-room r 784 volumes carefully selected for students' reading by the instructors in the several departments. Of these, 1 3oo arc English, 33 5 French, r o 5 German, and 44 I ralian. The use of these books is not governed by the restrictions applied to reserved books, but the books may be taken out as other books are.t Here, perhaps, is the ancestor of the browsing collections so common today. With the construction of the Union, a student activities center~ in 1901,. recreational and extra-curricular reading was made much more attractive. In his first report, for the year 1 897--98, Librarian Lane \Vrote of these collections:· 'To these [reserved and reference books] should be added the books in the Harvard Hall reading-room ( 3,95 9) and those in the other class-room and laboratory libraries (16,546), making altogether, at present, about 40,000 volumes which a.re directly accessible in an informal manner to the members of the University ..• In spite of the disadvantages of breaking up the collections, not ,vholly offset by centralized cataloguing and supervision, these cla.ss-room libraries have increased, accounting n O\v for a Jarge · part of the fif ty-nv o special libraries in the Harvard Library system. Winsor died in 1 897.,just after his return from En gland, where he had represented the American Library Ass~ciation at an international conference. Though his chief contrjbution to the H8rvard Library ,vas the liberalizingof the lending of books, he still believed there was no substitute for owning them .. He ,vrote to Eliot: .cThe pressure is constant to buy duplicates.. It is met sparingly . . . I deem it one of the most unsatisfactory phases of our student life that there is a dis- inclination to count the ownership of books among the necessities of a college course.' 8 His successor was Wil1iam Coolidge Lane, Librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, and a f ormcr member of the Harvard Li- brary staff. & Winsor's extra-curricular interests lay in American his-

• Letter of Winsor to Eliot, 17 · October [887: , , · T

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume I, Number 2 (Spring 1947) I Harvard Library B11lletin ·tory, particnlarly of the period of, exploration, .so Lane,s lay in artti- quarian investigations,especially into Hanrard history.. From his first report, it was evident that Lane meant to follow the paths laid out by ,vinsor. And during the next dozen years, as during the previous twelve, the LibraJ?s historyrmay be written in .terms of the need of larger quarters.· But now the basic purposes of a co1legeJibrary came up for consiaeration, and President Eliot a.t times found himself on the "oppositeside of the fence f ro1n the librarians. Hints of, Eliot's position are to be found in his report for the year :1885-86:: 'The juscific~tion of the eno~ous expense which is involved in the accumulation and maintenance of a great university library is not to be found in the daily use which the mass of the students will make of it. A much cheaper instrument ,vould serve them. The justification

·must be found in its indispensablenesst'o teachers, authors1 ·and other thorough scholars, and to srodents having exceptional work in han·d., In his report for 1892-93, however, the new methods'of instruction re~ ceive his complete support: 'However troublesome and costly it may be to teach thousands of students the abundant use of books, it is the most important lesson that canbe given them during their student life.• By 1898--99he was willing to put some limit upon the number of books to -which the students need access: 'A library for the use of young srndents feels the ·encumbrance of masses of dead books on the shelves, and of useless cards in the catalogue ·dra,vers more than any other sort of library; for large bodies of young men in process of education wa.nt easy access to ··manylive books inrapid succession, but have small interest in superseded books.' Addressing various libr8ry clubs in r 902, Eliot advocated a division of books into flive' and 'dead', and a storage of thc'dead ones in economical fashion4 1\1~nylibrarians jumped to the defense of thejr complete collections. And Professor Kittredge marked \ in tne backs of the books which ·heconsulted in the stacks of Gore Hall the da.te and his initialst so that they:at least would ·not be considered ~dead.'"Today, in somewhat modified forni, President Elioe's sugges~ tion has been acted upon by a group of libraries in the Boston region) -including Harvard.. ·. · So much for the public rec'ord4=· In private;· Lane · wrote to Eliot; ,'Should not the primary object of a, great university library be to supply the 11eedsof professors and advanced students? By, a selection ofi books placed in the Reading-room, or elsewhere, by special lists, and by personal guidance, the Librru.y meets·the needs of beginners.

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume I, Number 2 (Spring 1947) The Undergraduateand the Harvard Library., 1877-1937 2 29 Hence the accumulation •of books in a library does not ,vork!to the injury of· elementary students, for their wants arc served in a different "ray., 9 To which Eliot replied: 'I agree ,vith you that the primary object of a univer.sity library should be 'to supply the needs of professors and advanced students:; but the way to ·do that seems to me -to get the additional books which such persons need at the moment, and not to undertake to make huge collections in advance of the expressed ,vishcs of the professors 21;1d adYan ced students4' 10 With such a ·dif- ference of opinion as to methodsJ if not ends, .benvcen President and Librarian, it 1N·asobvious that more study was necessary.. So began the period of cornmittees. The first committee was-,veigh.ted in favor

•· of the Librarian~ for it ,vas made up of the Librarians of tl1e Law, Divinity,. l\1uscum of, Comparative Zoology, and College Libraries,

· plus the Director of the ObservatOf}7 ~ and Lane ,v-as Secretary. Its recommendations were: ' I. T,vo or more large reading rooms, in ,vhich are to be kept general reference'books and current pcriodicalsi -and reserved books for all the elemen~ tary courses and 'for ·son1e of the more advanced courses;-with provjsion for 500 reade~ and she1 vi ng for 35 i-ooo volumes. II. A series of rooms of moderate size having as far as possible t~e privacy and attractiveness that belong to a good private libNry,,

Here Widener, with its large reading room and its departmental libraries, is definitely foreshadowed. Deciding it ,vould be. wise to have these findings checked by out-

side authorities., the Corporation appointed another committee 1 con-

sisting of Herbert Putn8l11 1 Librarian of Congress, John Sha,v Bill- ings, Librarian of the New York Public Library, Ed,vard C. Pickcr- ing1 Director of the Harvard Observatory, and Lane. The· last tw'o named had been on the earlier committee4 Lane objected to the ap-

poinnnent of Billings1 whose :field had been medicine, for fear that thc ..committec ,vould be ovcnveighted in favor of science. As it hap-- 'pencd, Billings turned in a 1ninority rep·o·rcadvocating a limit, within

the next n.venty-.five years, of 500 1000 volumes for the University Library. In the call for the committee, the Corporation had stated:

it MS men1orand um to Eliot on the President's report for 1900--01. Letter of Eliot to Lane., 2 6 F ebiuary 1902-. ' u Submitted 3 1 March 1901; q noted in La.netsfifth report ( 1901-02 ) , p. l I 4.

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume I, Number 2 (Spring 1947) ,HarvardLibrary B11lletin 'The President and Fellows are ready to spend money in order to pro- cure one handsome reading-room, but,. in general, they feel compelled to be distinctly frugal and to consider very carefully the running ex- penses of the projected building.' In the majority report,, the pro- · ponents of library expansion stated: ',Ve believe that a collection of books indefinite! y growing~ containing a]so the material precious from its form or from association,is a cultivatinginfluence which ought not to be withdra,vn from the student body." So far neither of the committees had actually decided the question of keeping Gore Hall, though both had recommended the employ~ ' ment of an architect to study the subject. The Corporation's views at this tin1e appear in a letter from Eliot , to Lane,. dated 2.t June 1904: '1\1orcover.,there is not a·single member of the Corporation who is converted to the opinion that it would be expedient £or Harvard University to maintain an immense, very comprehensive library in the College Yard.' And in his report for 1902-03 Eliot was of the opinion that 'a million books ,vould seern to be a reasonable current stock to be kept on hand from generation to generation in the same building ,vith the admhu~trative officesand the reading-rooms. t Therefore, Lane began consulting ,vith Herbert L. Warren, Professor of Architecture, on the enlargement of Gore Hall. Warren drew up plans for a series of additions, ,vhich wo9ld cventu~lly surround that building completely. The Committee of 19or was asked to study these plans, and found them not wholly satisfactory. So outside professionals were again called .in,in the persons of Guy,Lo,vell., Desire Despradelle, and Charles A. Coolidget architects. Their reports once and for all banished Gore Hall; their plans, in fact., became the basis for Widener Library. One of the fe,v differences in the over-all plan is that they placed the delivery-desk in the position occupied by the memorial roon1 in the finishedbuilding~ · During this period of planning, the Library continued to function

as best it could in Gore HalL In 1900 1 Librarian Lane \Vas wondering why 50 r students out of 1,092 did not use the Library. 'Most of them, probably·all/ he ,vrote irt his report, 'used the reading-rooms and class-room libraries,.but it is a little remarkable that so many should have been satisfied with this, and not have been tempted to borrow additional books. The ft\~t that several of the social clubs no\lr support much larger and better_selected libraries than they formerly did is doubtless one reason why many students do not find occasion to bar-

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Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume I, Number 2 (Spring 1947) The Undergraduateand the Harvard Library, 1877-1.937 2 3 I . row from the College Library~~ One way to bring more students into the Library, he suggested in his rep on for 1 901---0 2, would be to pro- vide a more comprehensive collection of books in the reading room. 'In the meantime,' he wrote!! 'it js fortunate that the library of the Harvard Union has begun to offer some of the advantages of suc4 a collection, an~d especially in fields which the College reading-room has not attempted to occupy.' 12 These fields included literature, biog- raphy.,history, travel, and sport, and the collection was an open-stack one. Some of the decline in the circulation of books from the main library Lane attributed to th.is fact, finding it (striking evidence of the greater pleasure to be had in picking out one's own books from well selected open shelves, even though the books must be read on the prcmis-c-stthan in sending for them by messenger after searching in a card catalogue, though the stock to select from be larger and though the books may be taken to one's own room and kept for a month.' ... In 1907 there occurred one of the frequent waves of complaint con- cerning the senice to students4 A member of the junior class wrote to the Librarian: ~It would be asking none too much, I think!!to ask for freer access to the shelves, for the priviledge [sic] of taking out one book for each course pursued (perhaps ,vith the restriction to the number of four), for the removal of the high and inconvenient fences pla.ccd along the center of all the table~ in the reading room, for a better f onn of chair in place of those on spindles and above all for prompt and courteous attention.t 113 A graduate student who was later to meet academic administrative problems of his own came to the Library's defense, in a letter printed in the Crimson for 1 3 May 1907: 'I beg to testify to the uniform courtesy of the hard-worked men, ,vomen and boys ,,,ho mali.c the Harvard Library the most efficient and the most liberal circulator of books 1 have ever seen.' 1' It is significant that it was the undergraduate ,vho was attacking., the graduate who ,vas de- fending the Library. That the undergraduate had some reason 011 his .... side is to be seen in the f ollo,ving description of the old Gore Hall reading room, taken from the Boston Traveller for 6 September 1912 ..

tl" Jn connection -with the work of the Committee of 1902 t Lane questioned the members of the F acuity as to the use of the Library by th cir students; unf y only one reply has been found.

u Walter M.. Stonct '08!11to Lane, 1 r May ! 9074 The reference to one book for each course seems un j ustlfied1 for students: then 'Vfete allowed to take out three hooks nt e. time, and to keep them for a month. · u Henry N. MacCrackent Ph+D. 1907,

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume I, Number 2 (Spring 1947) 232 Harvard Library Bulletin ~The bare reading room,' the reporter states, 'with: its poor lighting arrangementst its uncomfortable, stiff-backed swivel chrurs, its inconvenient~ antiquated racks and its inevitable snsurrus of subdued voices has not been an incentive to earnest study t' New names and faces appeared on the scene during the years just preceding the building of Widener; n1any. were to come into close contact with the students. In 1904 Charles A. Mahady became Super- u.1tendentof the Reading Room, a post he held until his rcciren1entin 1943. In 1909 President Eliot was succeeded by Abbott La,vrence Lowell. The next year Professor Archibald Cary Coolidge, for so~e __ time a benefactor of the Library, was appointed to the newly-created post of Director. Finally, jn the summer of 1912, came the announce-

ment of a new buildi!_Jg1 the gif1t of Mrs George D; Wi~ener, in memory 1 of her son, Harry, who had been lost in the sinking of the 'Titanic.' The books were -removed from Gore Hall without delay, nvo thirds of them going to Randall Hall (now the home of the Printing Office),

the rest to Andover, Robinson1 and other buildings. Reading rooms were set up in MassachusettsHall durjng the threc ...ycar building period. ( 1\1assachusettsHall, in the course of its varied history, had served as , a reading room during the reconstruction of 1 896, and also as the home of the students" library in 1 87 z.) The new building represented a compromise_between the. library theories current at the time and the necessity that it be a ,-memorial. Trumbauer, the Philadelphia architect, drew heavily on the plans of the earlier committees, especially th at of the architects prepared in 1910 .. The belief that a reading room should be large and monumental ,vas deeply entrenched. Putnam, the Librarian of Congress~ told the Overseers in 1 903 that the present reading room 'lacks the large spaces conducive to meditative smdy, and is barren of the architectural beauty and dignity which in a great library can exer~ise a practical influence for good., 1~ It was hoped that the fine ne,v building would meet the needs of both undergraduates and scholars. But as is so often the case with ends that are not ,vholly compatible, one soon outdistanced the other. It was inconceivable that the Harvard Librnry should not be a great scholarI y library; nll its past hl story poinred to,va.rds that goal., The Boston Transcript for 5 September 1912 had this to say .of the proposed building: 'It is to be not merely a storehouse for boolcs, not merely a place ,vhere the undergraduate may go _toread~ or the instruc• ,.- :a& Quoted in La.netssh:th report ( 1901-03) t p. I 99.

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume I, Number 2 (Spring 1947) The Undergraduateand the Harvard Library, 1877-1937 t 33 tor to study .. It w11lbe a centre for the ripe·scholarship of the world,. a workroom and a 1aboratory for the men ,vho are to give direction to the world,s thought., At last there ,vould be studies enough for the profes~ors (though not for long), cubicles for graduate students~ and separate rooms for sc1nin ars. Anxious to def end the displacement of the delivery room in favor of ,the memorial library in the heart .of the building, Lowell -wrote to Putnam, on 30 October 1912: ,:1\1yinterest in the arrangeinent of the library is centered about making it as useful as possible for scholars who are engaged in study by providing them

with working rooms, gnd ,vith stalls or cubi cles1 leading off the stacks. The arrangement of the delivery room has seemed to me less important. 1 Lane, writing in the Library J01,rnal, l\1ay 1 913, echoes this argument. But many n student must have counted wearily the 68 steps to the delivery desk, and the 46 additional to the top floor, ,vhcre the Business School Library was housed until 192 7. : In spite of the emphasis on use by scholars and graduate :students,· many innovations on behalf of undcrgraduat~s were introdn,ced into the new building. The 1-Iistory Library ,vas n]oved from Harvard Hall and installed on the ground floor, ,vith a convenient, entrance. Here it remained until expansion of the Treasure Room required its trnnsfcr to 11earbyBoylston Hall in 192 9. From the stan, it ,vas planned to furnish a room in the ncvl libr2ry sol cly for recreational reading.

In 19161 ·Mr and Mrs ,villiam Farnsworth made it possible to equip this room,. adjacent to the main entrance, in memory of their son Hemy~who ,vas killed while serving with the Foreign Legion.. Under the guidance of 11rs Florence Milner~ this room became a model for several similar collections in coIle ges across the country.. Her experience was valuable when it came to establishing the Freshman and House Libraries. A somewhat similar room, for the reading of verse

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume I, Number 2 (Spring 1947) 2 Harvard Library Bulletin 34 . under the control of the reference librarian. t 16 This reco1nn1endation ,vas carried into effect the fo1lowing year with the appointment to this po.st of °"'alter B. Briggs. Visiting scholars and students alike found '11rBriggs ever ready to help them. In another effort to acquaint the students with the Library, a pamphlet, 'Notes on the Use of the H8IVard College Library,' was issued in 1 91 5; several new editions have since appeared. It has also long been the annual custom at Harvard for freshmen in small groups to be taken on a tour of the Library early in the college year. These remedies helpedt but could not cur-c the basic disease of bigness. ... The new building, which was dedicated in 1915, had not been in use long before flaws began to appear. The Cri111sonbecame particu- larly adept at picking them out; many of them petty., some serious. Almost everyeditorial board or group of candidat.estried its hand on the subject of Widener. Just how much these cditoria]s represented the feelings of the undergraduates as a whole would be hard to say. On smaller matters, ,ve find noise in the reading room a subject of discussion in 192 2, censorship in 1924, various utilities in 1925 t ventila- tion jn 1916 ..11 It is interesting, in the midst of such criticism, to find the Crimson editors in 1923 approving the purchase of unique books for scho]ars, rather than the duplication of texts for students.. 'The University's debt to the general cause of learning,' says an editorial, 'is grea tee than to the personal convenience of a few students.' 18 But in i925, urging the appointment of a Professor of Books, an editorial states~ 'The Widener of today is cold, f annal, business-like~ if not super-efficient" It is a ponderous mechanism which only thcr skilled graduate can rightly use.. It should be the heart and soul of the Uni- versity. It should be a treasure uove of kno,v ledge, but not one cl;lat is locked to all but the initiated. t 19 This is the perennial complain~ presented in humorous fonn by the Lampoon, 19 i\1ay 1926. A student

1 is shown requesting a c~py of Plato at the delivery desk and is told:

~Sor.ry1 we haven't any Platos today. Ies either lost, strayed, stolen or reserved. Couldn,t interest y·ou in 0. Henry could Ir' To correct

the complaints based upon the size of 1V'idcner.,little could be done 1 except to develop ]ibrary facilities ourBidethe building. Complaints

:i.e Ra1ph F ensterwald and Marion Folsom, Final Thesis, 9 April r 9 r4, 27 C-rhnson1May J 911; 18 November J 92s; 2 s M~rch, z 11 26 h1ay 192 5; .2 Decem - her 1926; 13t 14 January l927. . . :i.! Crimson, s February 19 2 3. :i.,Crimfo~ 11 January 1925.

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume I, Number 2 (Spring 1947) "'

The Undergraduateand the Harvard Library, 1877-1937 2 3S about the impersonality and quality of the service were another matter; here the. a.dministration and the students might ,vell differ as to the degree of difficulty. . With the physical expansion of the University· under Lowell in the twenties, the Library also expanded. In 192 6 a separate Iibrary for freshmen was opened in McKinlock Hall; this ,vas a double collection, one for the large survey courses, and one for general reading, some-\ what like the Farnsworth Room. "\Vhen the Houses for upperclassmen were completed a.nd the freshmen concentrated in the Yard., these li-

braries were tra.nsferred to the Union. Of this move 1 i1rs lvlilner . WIOte,in the Harvard Alumni Bulletin for 14 F ebn1ary 1936~

The most jnteresting development since movjng into the Union has been the

steady increase in general reading. For the first year [ 193 r] the men s cemed '1 quite unconscious of any thing on the shelves except books need cd for courses~ The change has come about largely through the generous buying of new books by the Union Comm1ttee and -bycalling especial attention to them." On shelves opposite the desk, so placed that everyone en teeing the rooms must pass them, is kept a constantly vi talired selection of recent acquisitions, These shelves usually contain about 350 volum~ which circulate constantly .. The .. ha.bit is ilso growing of wandedng through the alcoves in search of older books of interest and in becon1ing familiar ,vith ,vhat the Library o.ffers.

Too many freshmen became satisfied with the Union Library, and remained almost completely ignorant of ,videncrJ The fault was not wholly theirs. Plans for each of the seven Houses called for a library of from seven to ten thousand volwnes. The selection included many of the hooks needed in course and tutorial ,vork, as well as ref crence sets, and books for general reading; the furnishings suggested a club or priYate library. As many freshmen did not venture from the Union Library, so many upperclassmen came to prefer the House Libraries to Widener. Those electing to try for honors their senior year, however, welcomed the temporary penni~ admitting them to Widener's stacks. For b~sides the improved facilities offered to students for the reading of bookst there were also changes in the methods of instruction, resulting generally in the increased use of books. These included the Tutorial S)rs- tem -and the Reading Period. In most fields, students were assigned to tutors who were to guide their out-of-course reading. And for most courses, the n.vo weeks prior to mid-year and final examinations vlere allotted to extra reading. The Reading Period, as it was called~began

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume I, Number 2 (Spring 1947) 236 Harvard Library Bulletin in x928,. the same year that Professor Robert P,i Bia.kcsucceeded l\1r Coolidge as Director of the Library. Of its effect, Mr Blake wiote as fallows in his first report: 'In spite of the great strain put upon the Reading Room staff through this important innovation in college teaching, the Reading Room.st although cro,vded to their utmost

capacity (especially during the midyear period) 1 functioned smoothly during this tin1e. There were ahnost no compaints that books were not available and the majority o_fthe readers were pleasantl}7 surprised to

find how liberally the books were issued to them .. r •• This last fact [ the purchase of books by srude11ts] shows _clearlythat .students are being brought in contact ~vithmore books they wish to o,vn.t It is well the expansion came when it did, for during th~ dcprcssiop. years the Library had to economize. The ,videner building was closed at s.ixfor two years, arousing such a storm of protest from the students that the Corporation ,vas relieved to be ab]e to op~n it for the usual hours in 1934. So many books were lost that it became necessary in 193o .to install turnstiles at the ex.its. The students accepted the neces-- sity for this check with a minimum of grumb]ing. The administration, in fact, showed itself sympathetic to several of the demands of the Cri111son during the thirties; though the in1provc1ne11ts,vould probably have come anyway. ]\Tew lights ,vere installed in the reading room in r 93 5, lights ,vhich are already outmoded; the low period ,vas cut from a 1nonth to nvo weeks in 1938; a study ,vas made of the time required to obtain a ~book,and a simplified charging system intro duccd. Some improvements were made in the number 'and currency of newspapers, and in provisions for using then1. A book chute was installedt so books could be returned at times ,vhen the Library was closed4· Most of these changes benefited users of the Library in general as well as the undergraduates. It would be a mistake to assume any real division benveen the trennnent of uqdergra du ates and that of graduate stiJ.dents and scholars. For though the undergraduates in general used the reading rooms and House 'Libraries~ many· ,vere admitted for special periods to the stacks; and the graduate student might often have occasion to consult a reserved book in the main reading room, · '.Hov.7ever,,the question of whether the undergraduates v;rere n1aking the best use of Wide~er, or ,vhether "'idcner was really effectively usable by the undergraduates, still remained. -l\1r BJake' s report for 1 9 3 2-3 3 und erlincd previous observations that students \vere to a Jarge degree 1nerely reading their own notes and textbooks in the

Library, and not using the Library collections. In the Critic for 1 5 De- cember 1932, the 1nembersof the National Student League held: ~The simple fact is that the course system at Harvard so emphasizes reading for cxamfu-ationsand so discourages independent research that only a few srudents utilize Widener to fu11advantaget' Finally.,at the close of the period under discussion, the Crinzsoncarried a series of editorials on the coldness and impersonality of Widener. 'Alumni and visitors~, the first editorial states, 'are awed by its murals, marble, and majesty·, by its steps and circumf ercnce, its showcases and treasures. But, except at reading and examination periods, they may well wonder at the scarcity of srudents amid the swarm of employees and professors . . . "v\1idener is wondering, too, and very much interested in finding the

.. 4' First, is the old recomn1endation for personalization. Like Grand Central Station, Widener is b~g, moving~ 2nd impersonal, and it is difficult to ndd a ·'home.y'1 note to a building constructed for dig.+ nity rather than cozine5s/ The final editorjal in the series asserts that improvement 'can only come through a basic change in the library's attitude toward the un dergraduatc. U ncil the ]atter feels that the library is his, that attcn dants are there to help and not restrict him, he ,vill co11tinue to regard the friendlJTand hospitable air of the Farns- ,vorth Ro om as an oasis in an otherwise grin.1and inhun1an desert., 20 In such quotations as th esc, ,vritten by the stndents themselves, Iies the justification for a ne,v and radical attempt to solve the difficulty. The great specialized co]lections in the stacks, the extensive catalogues,, are in val uablc to the scholar; for the undergrad.uute they all too of ten serve to confuse and discourage. The lack of conta ct ,vj th boo ks, which the reading rooms and even the House Libraries cannot ,vholl)T ren1edy, is the most serious 1oss. The provision of reference assistants, the compilation of a gujde book, the tours for ne,v students, all these

help1 but until the student can live ,vith a goodly collection of hooks he is missing an important part of a college education. And so the ex- periments a.nd the makeshifts~ from ,vhich many lasting benefits have come, still lea.vc the University the problem with which this paper started; how best to brjng the .student and the books together. The 1 Librnrian, Mr l\.1etcalf,will describe a new approach to a solution of the problem in the next issue of this BULLETIN.

ROBERT w. LoVETT

JI] C'rimwnt 141 19 October 1937.

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume I, Number 2 (Spring 1947) I . ' List of Contributors .... . KEYESD. ME-rcALF, Professor of Bjbliography, Director of the Harvard HQ.!Vard University Library, and Librarian of Harvard College

AGNES r-.10NGAN 1 Keeper of Dra,vings in the William Hayes Fogg Museum of A~ Harvard University

frIFFOlID K. Sun>roN,Custodtan of the Harvard University Archives; Librarian of the American Antiquarian Society·

I HAMILTON VAUGRAN IlA1L, Deputy Treasurer of the Franklin lnstitutet

Phila.delphia 1 Pennsylvania

RF.GIN ALnF1Tz, Lecturer on the llistory of l\1edicinet U nivcrsi ty Marshal, and Assist.ant~ the Dean of the Faculty of !\1edicine, Harvard University RoBERTW. Lottrr,. Assistant in the Harvarrl University Archives

WILLIAM A. )ACKSONt Prof cssor of Bibliography and Assistant Librarian of the Harvard College Library in charge of the Houghton Library

ADRIANA R. SALEM, Department of Printing and Graphic Arts, Harvard ~ollcgc Library

EVA FLEISCHNER, Iioughton 1\1.ifBinCompanyt Boston, Massachusetts

LomsE B. GM.VES, Bosto~ Massnchusctts

PHILIP I-IoFE~Curator of Prin ring and Graphic Arts in the I-Iarvard College Librnry PHJLIP J~l\1cNIFF, Superintendent of the Reading Room in the Harvard College Library FRANK N. JONES,Adminis~ative Assistant in the Harvard College Library

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume I, Number 2 (Spring 1947)